Arsenal loanee Reiss Nelson has had an injury setback, suffering a new hamstring problem just as he was preparing to return from the old one.
Arsenal winger Reiss Nelson is on loan with Fulham for the season, but the 25-year-old hasn’t been available for match action for the last two months due to a hamstring injury.
The loanee was set to return from that injury any day now, but Fulham manager Marco Silva has revealed that the player learned he’d suffered another injury earlier this week.
“We had really bad news two days ago about Reiss Nelson,” Silva said. “Unfortunately for us, everything was going in the right direction, and he felt the same type of injury but in the other leg. It’s going to take a long time again to get him ready.”
If the new injury is similar in severity to the previous problem, that would mean another couple of months on the sidelines, and a return in April at the very earliest.
Much longer than that and the remainder of Nelson’s season looks to be in doubt.
The former England u21 international had made 12 appearances for Fulham before his first injury, scoring two goals and assisting one more. He’d just been handed a run in the team when he got injured, starting five Premier League games in a row.
There had been some media talk about potentially recalling Nelson in January, following injuries to Bukayo Saka, Raheem Sterling, and Ethan Nwaneri.
But with Nelson also injured, it didn’t make much sense, and Sterling and Nwaneri returned to fitness before the loanee did. With Nelson’s new injury, it looks like Saka might too.
Instead of returning to Arsenal, Nelson just has to focus on getting fit for Fulham and helping them as much as he can before the end of the season.